Science Opportunities Fund - Round Two
The Science Opportunities Fund (SOF) program was initially launched on April 11, 2008 as a $2M pilot program. SOF is now an on-going program with four intakes planned over approximately two years, and fills a much needed funding gap with an additional investment of $8M, half of which is provided by Genome BC. The program is expected to support modest endeavors typically in the range of $25,000-$200,000. Genome BC will provide no more than $200,000 with one-time funding that cannot be funded in whole or in part, through traditional mechanisms, which will catalyze or seed significant new programs and initiatives of key strategic importance to the BC life sciences community.

This program aims to support BC researchers by:

• Increasing access to emerging technologies in the genome sciences being developed nationally or internationally, in order to maintain their competitiveness;
• Fostering partnerships with national and international stakeholders in the genome sciences; and,
• Facilitating new and innovative means of interactions with industry or other end-users of genome sciences.

The second round of funding through the SOF program was announced on June 3, 2009.  Ten research projects were awarded a combined total of $2.7 million from Genome BC and other co-funders. These projects include:

• Applications of high throughput DNA sequencing in the identification of hybrid poplar feedstock varieties for the biofuels industry
• Barcoding of BC Ectomycorrhizal Mushrooms
• Conifer hybrid zones as genomic laboratories for adaptation to new climates
• Environmental Genomics of RNA Viruses
• High-throughput bacterial transcriptome mapping: a case study
• Novel DNA-Integration Tools for an International Consortium
• PCR-free, sequence-specific nucleic acid detection
• Short Sequence Assembly & Finishing of Large Genomes
• Splice-Variant Profiling of Voltage-Gated Calcium Channels
• Time Resolved Community Genomics of Subarctic Pacific Oxygen Minimum Zones